Lessons In The Arcane
by Adverage
Summary: There is a prophecy unfolding in the fae world based on the belief of an interfae secret society. An agent of the dark fae Santana has stumbled upon the girl meant to be a sacrifice and intends to discover the truth. Lost Girl AU. Brittana and others.
1. Prolouge

Puck dealt another ace and took the pot but there was no customary shout of victory, nor any reaction of irritation or despair from the two women he was playing with. They had continued the game as a formality of distraction for the past half an hour whilst their worry had mounted and in this moment had reached the most perfect crescendo of tension to be in that moment crowned by the knock on the door; a knock that should have released a troubled breath and instead doubled its pressure with some unknown dread.

She had only knocked once and when Quinn opened the door it was obvious as to why, a blood smear painted the front of the door as Santana slumped forward, more than one limb compromised by injury.

"Fuck, what happened?"

Quinn grabbed her under the shoulder for support; Puck had already knocked everything off of the table they'd been playing on.

"Fucking Redcap, my arms about to fall off."

They laid her our over the table, blood had already soaked into Quinn's white tee-shirt and as she lifted her hands to push a strand of pink hair away from her eyes she smeared a line across her forehead.

"Jesus, get me something to stop the bleeding or she's gonna pass out."

"Holy Shit. Forget pass out, she's gonna die."

Santana rolled her head against the pain to look up at the doe-eyed brunette that had just now sauntered up to the show, "Thanks for your stunning optimism Sugar, real helpful."

"She still has enough energy for sarcasm."

Quinn jostled her out of the way as she peeled back Santana's leather jacket, "Great, nothing to be worried about then huh? Forget the bandages Puck, she'll be just fine." Quinn pressed both of her hands into a bloody shoulder where a pulse was obvious in the sudden ebb and flood of blood that seeped up between her fingers. Sugar watched the intermittent torrent, "How does she even have that much blood?" Her eyes had ballooned with wonder and fear, Santana failed in her attempt at a clever retort that got caught against her lips in a weak mumble.

Puck had braced a large amount of medical supplies against his chest and now dumped them down beside his friend.

"Santana?"

"Puck unroll some of those bandages, her blood pressure is way too low."

Santana's head was still turned in Sugar's direction and as she stuttered pathetically on a soft, "Sh-sh-sh," the girl watched her eyes do a rather disturbing roll into the back of her head. It was a look she'd already seen a dozen times in the short period of their acquaintanceship but in this context of doom it made her want to cry.

"Santana, come on, stay awake."

"Shit."

"Sugar."

She realized that the attention had shifted from the dying girl on the table, who she thought should rightfully have it, to her. Quinn was staring her down between blood-matted strands of pink and blonde hair, her jaw set with a very definite sort of order.

"I don't know if I can."

"I know you're going to try."

"But-"

Sugar struggled for a moment between Santana and Quinn, the two of them so drowned in blood that had she not watched the events unfold she might have thought them both wounded. Puck's attention remained, undistracted, from his friend, his hand now cupped around her face urging him with one might say harsh words to wake back up. Still she remained, bloody and slack, most definitely dying.

"Okay, but move back a little, I gotta make sure she gets all of it."

Puck obeyed with a speed she'd never seen him demonstrate, his dark eyebrows caved down into the worried space of his face.

"I can't take my hands off of her shoulder."

"I know, but just, I don't know, lean back or something okay?"

Quinn's obedience was laced with reservations and a hard look of warning, a warning she felt the need to repeat out loud.

"If my friend dies on this table, I am going to kill you."

"I know."

She took a deep breath before kissing her.

Her mouth tasted like blood, not the blood of life but instead the metallic and unpleasant science-blood, the tasteless blood of a corpse, Sugar flinched at the taste but having unwittingly tied her life to this one act she didn't pull away. She let her breath out, but in its way it was more than breath and as she eased herself away from that taste she marveled at the stream of energy that connected the pair of them. Under Quinn's stern accusation she kept it up until she felt her own sight dizzy, a quiver in her knee robbed her of her ability to stand and her focus was broken.

She sat on the floor for a few moments, looking mystified at Quinn's black boots, not entirely sure if she could remember what important thing it was she had just succeeded at doing until she heard Quinn's voice, now infinitely more tender, saying, "You scared the shit out of me."

Having not lifted her hands for several moments out of fear Quinn had stood staring at her fingers, not wanting to break the silence that now seemed completely vital to Santana's recovery. In that silence, though it lasted only a second, she had pondered the whole spectrum of consequences to her removing her hands and had decided it was better to put it off. She had been putting it off when Santana's other hand had reached up to grab her wrist.

Quinn thought for a moment that Santana might say she was sorry, but whatever pain had brought such an inconsistency of character into consideration was quick to fade and replaced by reassuring sarcasm, "Tell me I did not just get awoken from the dead by a kiss from Princess of zero sex appeal land over there."

From the floor Sugar began to squeak a defiant, "I could have let you d-" but ceased the effort when Quinn swung her head down under the edge of the table to glare at her.

"Nevermind."

Puck had been looking, for the last several minutes, as if he were about to pass out.

"You okay."

"Course I am, I was just worried. What did you do, through yourself into a meat blender?"

"How did you guess?"

Despite the friendly manner of her cynicism no hint of good-will crossed her face, instead her mouth remained a snarl as she tried to shift herself into sitting position and finding that despite the closing of her wound she was still weaker than she would have liked.

"Try to dupe the wrong human?"

"I was trying to make a deal with one of them and some light fae goons jumped me for it."

"No way, they're not allowed to do that, are they?"

Sugar had hoisted herself back onto the table, leaning heavily on it for support.

"You think I don't know that rainbow queen?"

"Oh….no. So why'd they do it then?"

Quinn finally found it in her to release her hold on Santana's arm and wash the coating of blood off her hands, it seemed a silly thing to do considering she would need several showers to get anywhere near all of it off. From the sink she voiced her considerations, "They would only be that aggressive if you'd wandered into a human they were trying to protect."

Puck offered his shoulder to help her down into a chair, "You're sure they were light? I mean, you said a redcap right? You sure you didn't just get on another dark fae's turf or something?"

"I do my homework before I pick a human."

"I know, I know, I'm just saying."

Quinn had taken the time to wet one of the kitchen towels. The entire apartment was small, too small for the four people now inhabiting it, much less the two of them that normally lived there. They had tried for nice furniture and what they had scratched up the money to buy were a bit ragged, what they'd stolen however lived up to the standard and managed to bring a bit of sophistication. The towels they'd stolen but that didn't at all degrade their ability to clear up some of the blood from the table, the ground was scattered with playing cards. Ace, jack, six, "So, where's the human?"

"I'm right here."

And there she was.

Framed in the doorway and seeming not at all bothered by the large amount of blood that covered almost every conceivable thing she'd touched, even the ground was trailed with it, already beginning to dry. She was tall, taller at least, than any of them and blonde and pretty and quite all right with being called 'the human' figuring that as the only stranger in the room she was being referred to as such.

"You can call me Brittany though, there are a bunch of you and calling you all 'the not human' is going to get kind of confusing."

* * *

><p>"Was the attack on light fae territory?"<p>

"No."

"Were light fae involved?"

"No."

"Then I really don't see why this is something you need to bring up with the Ash."

Kurt put another packet of sugar into his coffee, hoping to consider the subject closed, he should have known better.

"The situation is too weird, even for territory dark just go ahead and attack each other like that."

Rachel was never one to let things go until every possible avenue of conversation had been exhausted, "Maybe she did something to provoke them, you of all people know Santana, forever the provocateur."

"Say what you want, this was wrong and if the Ash doesn't believe me I'll look into it myself, not like I'm not used to doing that already."

It had taken only one night for most of the fae community to hear of the bloody affair, the tale made swift by speculation that its victim hadn't been seen since and given her reputation her possible-death made news. Even knowing Santana's reputation as intimately as she did, Rachel could taste the foul play in the whole of it and was never one to miss the drama of conspiracy, at least that's how Kurt explained away her interest in the whole things, whether it was that or a more pointed interest in Santana herself he didn't want to know.

"Please don't, as your friend let me be the one to tell you that you're already known as a bit of a meddler and this new Ash doesn't take particularly well to being undermined. "

"Who says I'm undermining him? I'm just doing the job he's supposed to be doing much better than he ever could."

Rachel smiled with particular sincerity before taking a long sip of her tea.

"Where would you even start?"

Part way through her sip her eyes were drawn to something just above Kurt's head and her smile widened even more. She took great care in replacing her paper cup on the table and arranging herself in her seat.

"Hey Sam."

Kurt turned in his seat to see him standing there somewhat shyly, one hand jammed into the pocket of his jeans as the other held a folder of full of papers. He smiled at the pair of them nodding his shaggy blonde head once in greeting, "Hi."

To Kurt the action now seemed obvious as did her keeping it a secret, calling in favors from his exes wasn't something he would have normally signed off on and Rachel must have known it.

He pulled up a chair from one of the other small café tables, "How are you two."

Sam was never one to forget his politeness, no matter the circumstances, Kurt wondered if he realized that Rachel was using him rather blatantly.

"Great, right Kurt? Keeping busy and everything, did you find anything out for me?"

"Yeah actually."

Here he peeked a look at Kurt before opening his folder. From where he was sitting Kurt saw several photographs and legal documents, screen shots from video cameras one of which showed a rather vicious scene of the attack last night he guessed the bloodied rag-doll in the middle was Santana. The brutality worried him a bit, he had seen more than one fae go up against Santana and last less than a minute in the fight, to know that she may be lying dead somewhere stirred in him the same curiosity he thought might have animated Rachel. Suddenly he was more interested in the exchange.

"Two of the attackers were redcaps, part of a local dark fae gang led by this guy named Karofsky."

Kurt had gone for another drink of his coffee, hoping to appear as unconcerned as he meant to and now had the bad fortune of choking on it.

"You know him?"

"Old wounds."

Sam tired to pretend he didn't have a look one his face that asked, 'Old flame?' but Kurt pretended not to notice even though it had been far from anything romantic; the entire affair had ended with a fair amount of broken bones on both sides.

"Not that the two of them are friends but I can't think of any reason he would have them attack her."

"I didn't come up with anything in research either but who knows with dark fae. What's really interesting is the last attacker." Here Sam pulled out a picture of a pretty looking dark-haired girl.

"This is-"

"Harmony, I know her."

Rachel grabbed the headshot with all of the drama befitting such a reveal. Sam looked pleased with himself.

"Exactly, she's light fae. She's in good standing with the Ash and light fae high society too, the daughter of some really famous lawyer but whats important is-"

"She was working with the dark fae to hurt Santana. I knew it, I knew something was wrong with all of this, as usual my instincts refuse to fail me."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Sure, all hail Rachel Berry, master of the conspiracy. So turn it over to the Ash and forget about it."

He said it hoping that she might actually listen.

"Are you kidding me? Sam said she's in good standing with the Ash? What is this is some kind of conspiracy reaching higher up than even we could fathom? Isn't it then our responsibility to bring the wrong-doers to justice?"

It was obvious Sam was buying into it; he had that big goofy grin on his face.

"No, it means you report it and you stay as far away from Santana and her people as you possibly can. It's all bad news."

"There might be worse news."

Sam shuffled through a few more papers looking for something specific, "When I did more looking into this Harmony girl a name kept coming up, have either of you heard of something called the Arcana?"


	2. The Fool

"So the dark fae only go out at night?"

"No, they're just like the light fae, they just serve the Morrigan instead of the Ash."

"Okay so, that's confusing because if they're the same why are they fighting?"

Sugar sighed.

"That's just how it is, okay? Can we move on from this, explaining it over and over is starting to get me confused too."

Brittany smiled, "Yeah, okay, so you all have powers like the X-men right?"

"Right, but no spandex."

For a moment Brittany mused on this with a forlorn look then dove back into the explanation.

"I'm a succubus, so I feed off of sexual energy."

"And you can give it back to people, that's what you did when you brought Santana back to life."

Sugar nodded.

From outside the context of the two of them the intensity of there focus was intimidating. They were hunched amid the scattered furniture, their heads bowed as if in prayer or consideration of some long sought reward. In their isolation they shared the tradition of secrets, though the things they spoke were not always of that nature, to Brittany it was the initiation into a secret society and Sugar played along whether she knew it was a game or not. In the kitchen Quinn rolled her eyes, it was like watching children gossip.

"And Santana?"

"Uh, it can be kind of impolite to just tell random people without her permission."

"She's a Mephis."

The pair of them jumped, the illusion of isolation had so ensnared them that they had begun to believe Quinn wasn't able to hear.

"So she's from Tenessee?"

Sugar stared at her.

"No, she's a type of fae that tricks humans into contracts with her and then feeds off of their suffering."

"Oh."

Brittany looked at her feet; disappointed perhaps with the nature of a girl she'd only begun to know. Quinn realized her disclosure; Santana and this girl had met whilst Santana was attempting to form a contract and now Brittany knew the real nature of that encounter. The girls dejection seemed to conduct to her and she thought for a second she might apologize, or explain that Santana, as vicious as she may try to appear, only ever made such deals with those she had an interest in but figuring the amendment would be of little comfort continued to peck at the keys in search of new information.

"How about you?"

"I'm an As'bel," before she could ask Quinn continued, "It's like a guardian angel."

"That doesn't seem dark."

"I don't really have the time or desire to explain the cultural context of my kind to a human."

She said human like it was a dirty word and Brittany was back to looking at her feet and while she was never one to dare to speak up, behind the barrier of the couch she slipped her hand over Brittany's and tried to absorb some of the insult. Sugar had already begun to like this girl, her eyes got bright over the smallest of gestures and compared to the sour company of Quinn or Santana she was a welcome relief from brooding. Even Puck, who normally took time to flirt or smile, had been haunted by a particular spirit of malcontent and in the spirit of taking away the sting of Quinn's insult she let just a bit of her chi slip through her fingertips. Brittany flushed immediately and Sugar took a sudden notice of how hungry she'd been. Her youth had been impeding her and while the Morrigan had placed her under Santana's watch for the sake of training but her mentor didn't seem too excited about the whole idea.

Brittany had a light energy, lighter even than her complexion, which was painted now with a blush and the desire that sat easy in her eyes now seemed natural to her, as if lust was a state she enjoyed especially. As her mentor Santana had taken on the role of her feeding ground but she thought she might enjoy the taste of human, assuring herself that she would be careful. Leaning in for the kiss she saw the smattering of freckles around Brittany's nose and couldn't help but smile.

It was a smile torn from her face in the moment of pain that was Santana grabbing her by the back of her neck like a kitten.

"Ow, owowowowow."

"Keep it in your pants kid-wonder, I don't want to be wiping human off the walls."

The word 'human' fit in her mouth the same way it had fit in Quinn's but as she said it, and Brittany smiled at her as if the trance invoked by Sugar had just been undone by something of more power, there was a flicker of something with a bit more faith.

"Sorry, I'm hungry."

"We'll try and find you a snack."

Santana's face seemed only to have two settings a sort of default scowl and a self-satisfied smirk; it was occupying the latter currently and switched to the prior as business began to be discussed.

"I asked around the way-station but nobody knows anything about new redcap turf. You have any better luck back here?"

Quinn didn't take her eyes off of the computer screen, "I'm sorry darling, I was so preoccupied in my caring for the children I just didn't have time to do the housework!"

"Super funny Fabray."

Here she finally let her eyes away from the screen and for the first time that Brittany had seen, smiled. She understood then that while she may not understand fae, their powers or their insistence upon dividing themselves, but knew that they still made friends with one another and that Quinn and Santana had one of those friendships that is often neglected by any attempt to explain it. It was in equal parts loving and fearing but it would not apologize and it would continue despite everything.

"Your Redcap friends were named Joseph and Greyson, the latter was found at the bottom of a sixty foot cliff earlier today. The police think suicide but that's a human take on it. We both know there's a thousand kinds of ways a man can jump off a cliff without it being his choice."

Quinn said everything matter-of-factly in her high-toned voice, the whole thing read like a lunch menu. Santana just crossed her arms over her chest and listened. Her hair was up today, when Brittany had met her she'd worn it down, she liked it better down; she liked the way the light got trapped in it.

"Come on Sugar."

Sugar looked between them, surprised at her inclusion.

"S-She hasn't even told you where the murder took place."

"How many places around here have sixty foot cliffs?" Santana's mouth was in a sneer, one eyebrow raised as if in disbelief of her charge's cluelessness

"Oh, right."

The thought that she might be allowed time alone with her mentor made her giddy until-

"You're coming too."

Brittany skipped the custom of shock and passed immediately into delight.

"What?" Sugar sounded ruder than she meant to.

"If I leave the two of you here you'll probably just end up screwing her in my bed, which will be a shock considering that for a succubus you have about as much sex appeal as a baby penguin and if I leave her here alone Quinn might feed her to something so we're taking a field trip."

* * *

><p>"Thanks again for this Mike."<p>

"No problem."

Mike Chang smiled one of his honest smiles and continued leading the way.

"No really, I mean, not that I'm afraid of being on dark fae territory or anything. I'm sure Tina's told you I've had my place in a few dark fae territorial disputes but it is always comforting to have someone along with me, the siren abilities only come into so much use if things break down into some sort of physical altercation."

"Really Rachel, it's not a problem at all."

His putting up with her several long-winded gratifications only made her want to thank him again but she but her tongue and settled for a quiet 'okay' as they slid past a couple walking in the opposite direction. Mike hardly seemed to take a step at all but instead floated. Movement was in his nature and he was as good in a fight as he was in a dance performance. The district they'd followed Sam's directions too was run-down and nearly in the jurisdiction of another way station, Rachel had checked the directions four times, she had insisted on writing them down herself as to make sure they were exactly as she wanted them.

They weren't really necessary; Mike knew the way.

It was a boxing gym down one of those streets that had at one point been destined for economic activity but as new businesses opened the corporate machine moved on. It stood between a drug store and an abandoned lot, a squat grey building with a few glass windows in the front. Inside she could see a boxing ring set up along with a bunch of fitness equipment. Before the even opened the door someone blocked their path.

Rachel knew his name was Azimio from the research, one of Karofsky's bruisers.

"Nuh-uh, where do you think you is going fancy-feet."

Rachel cleared her throat, "Let me take care of this Mike."

Mike stepped aside, expecting, as was to be expected, a somewhat long-winded explanation of their goings on, various offers of peace and perhaps a reproachful remark or too and instead Rachel hummed a low note and the mans eyes drooped.

He slumped against the building and slid down, fast asleep.

"Wow."

"With some people its not worth the breath to try to reason."

Satisfied with herself Rachel held open the door for her companion, "After you."

The facility smelled like sweat and as they entered the incessant slapping of skin on the soft shells of their punching bags stopped and the five or six patrons stared directly at them.

More than one of them moved to stop them and she saw Mike's shoulders tense, before the first one was within three feet he was suddenly behind him, bending his arm to the point of submission with only a look of focus on his face. He had always seemed to her, incapable of malice, and seeing him hold his victim in a kind of pain until he was subdued was something strange. Before he could undo another one there was a voice from the ring.

"Stop."

Karofsky's voice had a boom too it, it had a kind of vicious mocking tone that could be used to harm and yet he did not employ it. The word instead had a kind of begging tone; he was hoping that there might not be any more violence than there need be. He had been fighting and when he hoped out of the ring Rachel was a bit disgusted by the many dark spots that splotched his clothing, she could smell it as he walked over, not entirely unpleasant in an independent sense, but not something she enjoyed.

"Everybody stand back okay?"

As soon as he was sure his companions meant nothing rash he turned back to his visitors, a troubled look on his face.

"Sorry, you're Rachel right?"

She was shocked by his willingness to converse, from what Kurt had warned her had hadn't seemed the type.

"Y-yes, and you're Karofsky? We've met once or twice."

"At the way-station probably, you're one of Kurt's friends."

"We're not going to talk about Kurt."

Karofsky shut his mouth and nodded his head, Rachel had never been given details on what it was he had done but as their conversation continued she thought it more and more terrible, he repentance had him submissive.

"Can I help you with anything?"

She could tell he wasn't used to being helpful and it cast the entire conversation in an awkward tone, as if they weren't really having it at all, as if it were too ridiculous that he would be so good about it.

"Yes, actually, we were wondering about two of the people in your….association." Here she pulled out photographs from a neatly kept folio, "One Joseph Haines and one Gregory Greyson as shown here, both of them were-"

"This is about Santana?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you could provide any insight as to why-"

"Why are you worried about it if it had to do with Santana?"

Mike looked at her, just as interested in the answer.

"There's some suspicious light fae involvement as well, that is my point of interest now if you would be so kind."

She tapped the photos impatiently.

"Uh right, I hadn't seen either of them for a week or two."

"Hadn't as in you have more recently?"

"Sort of? Greyson jumped off a cliff."

"What?"

Karofsky shrugged his broad shoulders, looking mostly indifferent.

"I guess we all have our demons."

That was an excuse if she'd ever heard one.

"Do you know where?"

"Yeah, down by the quarry, they found him this morning. I've been trying to get in contact with Joseph but he hasn't been picking up his phone how about I tell you if I find him?"

More kindness, it was a surprise every time, it seemed incongruent with him.

"That would be good, thank you."

"And uh," he rubbed the back of his head with his hand, she knew what was coming, "If you could just let Kurt know I'm still sorry, I mean, I'm sorry again? That'd be cool or whatever."

"I'll let him know."

* * *

><p>They hadn't found anything, the body had been removed some hours before, or pieces of it had. He hadn't so much fallen as rolled the length of the fall and in doing so had been scattered all down the slope in a manner so sickening it even made Santana's stomach turn. There was an eyewitness or two to the clean up but both of them just made the same disgusted face at being asked to recount the scene. Sugar has spent the whole trip nearly falling to her own death over every other stone; Brittany on the other hand, hadn't stumbled once. She functioned with a grace Santana had never witnessed and had she not been so well acquainted with things labeled supernatural she might have called her ethereal. Now and then she would find herself hypnotized by the way she handled a loose patch of land and need to remind herself that there was no power there she couldn't understand. Making the steep walk back up to her car Sugar made a misstep, falling backwards only to be grabbed by Brittany. The brief exchange of a glance, Sugar's apology against Brittany's smile made her angry. That wasn't particularly new, there were any number of things that made her angry and she didn't want to think on how this girl smiling at anybody else was one of them.<p>

Distraction from feeling came in the form of Rachel Berry.

As they climbed the crest of the hill there she was, sitting on the hood of a black sports car with a guy whose name Santana couldn't remember trying out his dance moves in the sand of the quarry parking lot.

"See Mike! I told you this was her car."

Her rage found a new conduit but as she started towards her the man stepped between them, if you could call it stepping. He seemed to move without moving.

"You better have a good explanation for why you're here you little hobgoblin."

"I'm a siren and I'm here for the same reason you are."

"Not a good answer Medusa, it means you're meddling again."

No matter the number of exchanges Santana always managed to get Rachel indignant.

"She was a gorgon, I'm a siren Santana, a siren. It's not meddling, the girl that attacked you, she was light fae and she was working with the dark fae who through themselves off this cliff. I have more information than that but unlike you dark fae I'd rather not air out all my dirty laundry. I don't know who might be listening."

"With that voice of yours? Probably anybody in a square mile."

"At least you got the siren part right that time."

Santana measured up the man standing between her and Rachel, she didn't know exactly what he was but she knew that he could beat her in a fight. Then again she had Sugar, not that that would be worth much if Rachel started her singing. At that point strength would be surrendered to whatever hypnosis she could stir up. Even as all of this sense formed and processed in her head she wanted nothing more than to try it, to punch him in the gut and make for Berry, to try and get that smile off her face.

It was as if Brittany knew.

She had her hand on Santana's shoulder just a second before she meant to move and instead of violence she offered her hand to the man, smiling.

"Hi, I'm Brittany Pierce, are you a fae thing too?"

Mike, in his good-nature was disarmed by the sign of peace and offered his hand just as readily, "Mike Chang, and yes, you're a human?"

"What are you doing with a human?"

Rachel looked between the two of them as Mike and Brittany continued their hellos, Sugar had walked up with a loud declaration of her own name not wanting to be left out.

"It's a long story."

"You can tell it to me later, I have some other information to give you, you can come by my house or we can meet at the way station, its up to you."

"Can I bring Puck?"

"Only if I can have protection too."

"Tomorrow night?"

"Deal."

In the short duration of the exchange the pair of their counterparts had already begun teaching one another dance steps. Brittany picked them up wonderfully as Sugar struggled along beside her.

Santana rolled her eyes.

"Come on children, trips over."

They said good-bye the way children say good-bye a wave and a smile and a promise to play again some other time, though she couldn't think of a time permitting, and for a moment she almost envied that kind of simple farewell not laced with political implications or long buried rancor. Clueless to any of that Brittany hopped into the passengers seat.

"I still don't get it."

Santana revved the engine.

"What?"

"He was nice, he liked dancing, he said we could teach one another some moves."

"So?"

"So why is it you have to fight him?"


	3. The Magician

He doesn't know why the Ash insists on keeping the offices so dark, after hours there are no emergency lights, no dull glow from any lit hallway, just the humming blue sheen of his computer screen paling his face and draining him with every click-clack of the keys. He didn't mind the research projects, they suited him, he and his wife hadn't been getting along and going home tonight would be more trouble than it was worth with the blow out they had that morning. Sitting beside him on the desk was his cell phone, now and then he peeked at it, hopeful that there might be some message of inquiry, some plea for him to come home so they could work it out and yet, nothing. It kept him working, despite the exhaustion; if she didn't want him home then he might as well make himself wanted by the Ash. It was late, nearly one in the morning; he thought he might just sleep here, hunched over in the discomfort of his chair he wanted nothing more than to lay his head down on the keyboard.

He perked up at the creak that echoed from the other side of the floor, it bounced through the cubicles but even distorted it worried him, adrenaline tickled the tops of his ears, he blinked, once, again, trying to focus on something he wasn't fully sure was there.

"H-hello?"

Nothing.

"Hey, I'm sorry I'm still in here I'm just finishing up."

A member of the cleaning crew had already been through earlier in the night but he thought it might not be so strange for them to go over it twice, there was nothing wrong with being thorough. He thought he heard footsteps.

"You can clean this cubicle if you want, I'm leaving."

He grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and hit the power down button on his computer, not really caring if it shut off. The pathway between the cubicles seemed to him a path through hell, each side portioned off and filled with hiding places.

It was like him to be silly; his wife always said that, he just needed to calm down.

Nothing would happen, he's worked there for the past four years and nothing had ever happened, even walking home late, he was being silly.

Something cracked him in the back of the head so hard he fell over. His vision blurred, things were fuzzy and suddenly seemed too bright, he felt something take him around the ankle and heave him up, he couldn't quite process it, the being in the air, the being upside down, the looking down at the ground through hazy injured eyes. Just as he was getting used to the new orientation of things, just as he thought he could see someone, holding something, something shiny, something sharp, something placed just below his chin on the stretched out skin of his neck, something cold, something that covers his face with something warm, something red.

* * *

><p>Rachel had a townhouse in the nice part of town, the part of town that doesn't make you nervous to walk around at night. Everything was decorated like a page from a magazine, calculated within inches, just looking at it exhausted her. She'd been sitting in the kitchen, Rachel had asked her into the living room but the entire thing seemed too intimate for her, the stainless steel surfaces of the kitchen were better suited. Minutes had been wasted with Rachel's bustling around, offering her things to drink, Santana didn't take her jacket off.<p>

"I have beer."

Santana rolled her eyes.

"Spit it out Berry, I don't have all night. If I don't get home Sugar will probably eat my human and you don't want that on your hands."

"Didn't leave food out for you pet?" The comment felt foreign in her mouth, Santana sneered at her.

"I didn't know you'd grown fangs."

"You've been away for awhile."

She nodded and took off her jacket.

"Okay, I get it, I can be kind of a bitch but I didn't sign up for a heart to heart tonight, you said you had information."

Rachel set a beer down on the counter regardless of her guest's capacity for hospitality; the folder Sam had given her followed it. It had grown a bit in thickness with him sending her new information every now and then.

"That's from Sam."

"Who?"

"The blonde guy, the hobgoblin? You've met him."

Santana ignored her to thumb through the bulk of the folder, stopping on one picture or another until she found the one that she was looking for. She slipped it out and onto the polished stone of the island; it was the studio headshot of Harmony.

"I assume this is what you want to tell me about."

She was a pretty girl but the kind who never tried too hard because she had other stuff to worry about, Santana had never seen her before, but by the way Rachel swallowed she could tell she did.

"Her names Harmony, she's a siren, we used to know each other."

"She's light fae."

When she'd attacked her she'd had her hair up, personally she thought it looked better down, the Redcaps had been the muscle but when she'd taken one of them down Harmony had gotten involved, whistled something low until Santana's head felt like it was going to burst, that's when they'd dug into her. If not for Sugar she'd be dead because of the girl in this picture, beaming like she was the best thing the world had ever done.

"How do you know her?"

"It's not important."

She thought she caught her blushing and normally she would have picked at it but now wasn't the time; this was the beginning of a war council, no time for fraternization.

"But theres something else, Sam did a background check."

"Sexy dark past?"

"No, completely clean, except for this company called Arcana."

Rachel pulled out another couple of sheets, bank statements and stock transcripts, things she probably shouldn't have had. She pointed at a number.

"Holy shit."

"My reaction was something like that, less vulgar."

It was a lot of money, and not just one time, over and over, the zeroes made her head swim.

"She's listed as an agent for their company, but their company doesn't exactly seem to exist. Sam went through everything he could find, it looks like there are stock purchases but all of the accounts aren't real. The address they have listed is for a big corporate building but there's no description of what they do or who they are and while they spend impressive amounts of money in salary there doesn't seem to be any profit from-"

Rachel said all of it so fast that Santana hadn't heard more than a word.

"Slow down Berry, you're gonna give yourself an aneurysm."

"I assure you, I've talked faster."

That scared her. She tucked the papers back inside the file and picked it up, "I'm going to give this to Quinn to look over."

She put her coat back on, the beer was untouched.

"W-wait, don't you think it's a little rude not to include me in the investigation."

"This isn't for fun Nancy Drew, people are dead."

"For your information, people died in Nancy Drew."

Santana rolled her eyes.

"I'm just saying that if this girl is light fae and she's working with dark fae wouldn't the logical approach to stopping her be forming a similar alliance?"

"No."

"Santana-"

"No, if I wanted more people to baby sit I would go find myself a few more humans and have a party."

"You wouldn't have to babysit me, you know I can hold my own."

"Then you hold your own and I'll hold mine."

There was more to it than that, of course there was. There were the implications of it considering their previous history, there was the fact that Quinn would kill her if she brought the girl to their base of operations unannounced or at all really, there was the fact that she'd already almost died once and if she couldn't look out for herself how was she supposed to keep everyone else safe? It was impossible it was easier to separate now, to forget about it. Rachel appealed a few more times but Santana didn't respond, she just left, folder tucked under her arm.

The houses clustered close down the street made the dark seem safer, she would walk a little further into town before calling Puck to pick her up, she would spend some time to herself. It would be nice to get a human, she wasn't hungry but there wasn't always time to top off, wasn't always time to bolster her strength and humans could take a lot of time though no matter how many deals she made they never seemed to get any more aware. As far as fae go the Mephis had a public reputation but none of it mattered, offer a human something they want badly enough and any lore of demons trading souls for gold are forgotten on the spot. Her way of feeding wasn't the quick and dirty of the succubae, it took time, time for the deal to take over, for the human to suffer and so if she set all of it up she would never be hungry, she would never be weak, she would never be oblivious to the footsteps following her. A distance away, maybe on the other side of the houses, but there none the less, two, three sets of feet and getting closer. She didn't pause she wasn't afraid and if Harmony was there she would find out everything about Arcana, one way or another.

Santana was disappointed when they burst from the bushes and she saw no long black hair, ponytail or otherwise. Instead it was three men, one of them burlier, maybe an ogre, and the other two indistinguishable.

She was ready for them.

The shortest of them was a Warlock, his hand were glowing when he punched at her, the strength of the spell slowed his strikes but as his hands hummed past her she felt the sparks flying off of them. Every strike would need to be dodged; blocking would do more harm than good. The second was a pyro, a problem had she not been expecting their strategy, the warlock, as a close combat distraction to the pyro's long-range but it didn't matter. As soon as she saw his arms flare up she spun away from the first assailant and kicked the second so hard in the ribs she felt several crack against her boot. On reflex of pain a burst of flame roared past her ear and into the face of the ogre, blinded he swung an arm, once, twice. It walked towards her; she backed away, her steps just able to keep her out of range. On the fifth strike she ducked under his arm and tried for an uppercut but her arm rang with the force of the attempt.

The warlock was back, his magic drawn up into his hands with so much ferocity it was causing his eyes to glow. Santana kept her distance, her hands up to block her face, she bounce to the side, making sure to keep him between the ogre and herself. One, two, three strikes and getting slower, he didn't have the stamina for that level of magic. She danced around him, first to the left and then back again as to spin him around. The ogre had regained himself but only just as she dodged a superman punch that sent the warlock, arms glowing, straight into the big bastards groin. The pain of it knocked him to his back while the warlock turned around in time to watch Santana's fist break his nose.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you, I just cleaned up the blood from the last partially dead person you dragged into our house."<p>

"Sorry that I thought my own apartment would be the best place to drag my dying ass, really, I'll be more considerate next time."

Quinn set her jaw, "You know that's not the point, the point is couldn't you interrogate this bloody mess in an alley or a hotel room or anywhere not my kitchen?"

They had him tied to one of the chairs; Puck had made expert work of the whole thing. His hands behind him, his head lolling as his chest as he tried to fight back the pain of his shattered face long enough to beg for mercy, exactly how Santana liked it.

"I'll clean it up."

"You never clean anything up."

"I'll have Sugar clean it up."

The girl perked up at the sound of her name, she'd been staring hypnotized at the carnage of their houseguest for the past twenty-minutes.

"What will I do?"

"You'll do whatever I say because I let you live with me."

Sugar rolled her eyes and set her face back down on her hand, "Ay ay captain. Hey, shouldn't we like, set his nose or something? He has kind of a pretty face, hate for it to get all gross."

"No, really Sugar, go ahead and worry about the cosmetic damage we do to the people who try to kill me."

"I'm just sayin'…."

"Dhat's nighf of youb."

Sugar fell backwards in her seat, "Holy shit he can talk."

"Welcome back to the world of the living Merlin."

He did his best to lift his face up to look at them, blood covered every crease of his mouth and the middle of his face was grotesquely swollen. Santana grabbed the top of Sugars seat and pulled it up next to him, she sat down so she could look him in the eye.

"I suggest you get to spilling your guts, people can die from nose-bleeds you know, not that that's the worst we can do to you."

"I'mb sowwy bud I don'b knowb what youb want to knowb."

"Let's start out easy then. What's your name?"

"Blaine."

"Are you light or dark?"

"Libght."

"Why did you attack me?"

"I-I dob't knowb. Someone tobld me do."

"Was it Arcana."

His eyes glazed over and his head lolled back down onto his chest, the twitching started in his hands, Santana thought he was trying to fight the rope but then it went up his arms and into his shoulders until his whole body was seizing. She thought the force of it was going to snap the chair in two, his eyes rolled back.

"Quinn, help."

Santana put her hands on his shoulders, tried to see if she could keep him still. Quinn grabbed a towel and held it against his face, trying to get some of the blood out of his mouth and eyes and nose and everything.

"Fuck, Santana, what did you do to him?"

"Nothing, Sugar can you get help him?"

So far she'd been standing back from the three of them, looking scared, "I don't think he needs chi, it feels more like he's overloading."

"Then suck it out of him?"

"Stop touching him!"

Never had Santana followed an order with such efficiency, never had she planned to follow an order from Sugar but in the tone of her voice was a genuine fear she didn't want to try and disobey. Their timing was a miracle, the moment their hands left him he flared up a bright blue, the chair caught fire.

Quinn kept relative cool as she back-pedaled into the kitchen and grabbed the fire extinguisher. Santana tried to get at the ropes but it was too hot and she withdrew her hand swearing loudly.

"Get back."

Santana found herself once again following orders as Quinn doused the boy and the chair in twice the necessary amount of carbon dioxide.

For a moment the three women stood there in shock.

"Holy shit."

Quinn held the extinguisher poised as if he was going to reignite.

"Is he alive?"

Santana reached under his chin to feel, "Yeah, just unconscious I think. He…"

Sugar's brow was furrowed in disbelief, "He had a self-destruct protocol, like a robot."

An hour later Sugar repeated herself as Rachel Berry walked through the door. "He what?"

"Burst into flames in the middle of our living room."

Puck had returned with Brittany, he looked rather sheepish having given in to her requests to take her for Mexican food and in doing so missed the action. Quinn had left as soon as Santana had made mention of calling the Siren over.

"She can affect his brain okay? Maybe not psychically but physically."

Quinn wasn't having any of it and she mumbled about how her house was being invaded as she pulled her leather jacket on.

"It was some sort of sleeper trigger, it cause his abilities to go into overdrive."

"Like a subconscious suicide pill? That's…that's just evil. What triggered it?"

"Ar-"

Rachel slapped a hand over Santana's mouth only to quickly remove it, fearing that it might be bitten off.

"Sorry, I just, you can't say it can you? If the trigger is subconscious he could go off again and blow us all up or something."

"Whatever, that company that starts with an A that doesn't actually exist."

"And you want to see if I can sing the block out?"

"It sounds stupid when you say it like that."

Brittany was poking Blaine, trying to see if she could get him to wake up. She'd already taken the liberty of cleaning the blood off of his face.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do."

Rachel didn't sit down; she always made a point that the best singing is done standing. She took a breath before whistling a low note, Santana couldn't exactly hear it as much as she could feel it as well as see the small distortion of the charged sound. It curled up around Blaine and he seemed to regain consciousness for a moment, he looked around the group of them and then up at the ceiling. Rachel's brow furrowed but she kept the whistle, something was wrong. Blaine's mouth opened wider than it should have, he twitched for a moment before yelling. He yelled like he was on fire and Rachel stopped.

"Oh my god, are you okay?"

It was no use, he was gone again into unconsciousness, and Rachel's hands shook.

"T-that didn't work, I'm not doing it again."

Brittany had hurried back to his side, "We can loosen the rope right?"

"You don't have to do it again."

Even Santana was shaken by the display, Sugar had run to the bathroom to either cry or vomit. She nodded to Brittany who began picking at the knots; Puck came over to help her, making noises that sounded like apologies.

"I could….I know a telepath, we could call him but he probably won't be able to come right away."

"Yeah."

She stared at the man, they were all but torturing him now and he was light fae, there would be a lot to answer for if they couldn't make anything out of it. Her body hurt, she had been nearly dead not too long ago and fending off a repeat of that situation in the last hour, she wanted sleep, she wanted these people out of her house. She could only have one of those.

"You can call him Berry, tell him he can come over tomorrow, Puck, you get first shift of guarding the warlock, wake me up around three and I'll do the rest of it." She shook his head once with that determined look in his eyes, she knew he wouldn't wake her up; he was that kind of guy.

"I'm going to sleep before someone else tries to blow me up."

Her room was dark, she painted it dark, it seemed to cool everything and so when she slipped into bed the warmth was particularly precious. She slipped out of her jacket like it was a suit of armor; she undid her boots and slipped out of pants that had been soaked in blood. She washed off the blood in her bathroom. There had been too much blood recently, blood on everything, she needed a shower, a warm bath, wine, but right now she needed to sleep. The covers came through on their promise of that particular feeling of cold before they took to her body heat. She was midway into sleep when her door opened, she thought at first that she had misjudged Puck but when the frame proved more slender she figured it was Sugar.

"I can't tonight Sugar," She groaned, "I've gotten my ass kicked every day of this week."

It was Brittany, she wasn't deterred.

She pulled up the blanket on the other side of the bed.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I can't sleep on the couch, looking at Blaine makes me sad."

Without even a mention of permission Brittany scooted up behind her, the warmth doubled, she had slipped out of her pants. The closeness might have shocked her awake but the warmth calmed her back into her exhaustion. Brittany tightened her arms around her, nestled into her hair. She tried for a moment to stay awake, between her dreams and Brittany she wanted to enjoy it. Sex with Sugar had been something, it fixed the itch, but a body hungered for more than that and there was intimacy in this girl lying behind her that hadn't existed even in the best of moments with Sugar. Even as she wanted to hold to that feeling it was like the taste of food, not fully satisfying until completely consumed and so, smiling, she fell asleep.


End file.
